by Donna Brazile (CNN) — Even from the moment they were set down in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words “all men are created equal” have always been awkward and challenging. They’re not awkward and challenging because they’re incorrect. On the contrary, they’re some of the truest words ever put to paper. Instead, they’re awkward and challenging because — for a nation built by slaves, where only a fraction of the population owned land and even fewer could vote, where an entire gender was held at bay for centuries — these words were the sand in our collective eye that urged us, always, to be better, fairer and more decent to one another.